Emil Guillermo wrote for almost 15 years his "Amok" column for AsianWeek, which was the largest English language Asian American newsweekly in the nation. "Amok" was considered the most widely-read column on Asian American issues in the U.S.

His thoughtful and provocative social commentaries have appeared in print in the San Francisco Chronicle, SFGate.com, San Francisco Examiner, USA Today, Honolulu Star Bulletin, Honolulu Advertiser, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and in syndication throughout the country.

His early columns are compiled in a book "Amok: Essays from an Asian American Perspective," which won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 2000.

Guillermo's journalistic career began in television and radio broadcasting. At National Public Radio, he was the first Asian American male to anchor a regularly scheduled national news broadcast when he hosted "All Things Considered" from 1989-1991. During his watch, major news broke, including the violence in Tiananmen Square, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the end of dictatorships in Romania and Panama. From Washington, Guillermo hosted the shows that broke the news.

As a television journalist, his award-winning reports and commentaries have appeared on NBC, CNN, and PBS. He was a reporter in San Francisco, Dallas, and Washington, D.C.

After NPR, Guillermo became a press secretary and speechwriter for then Congressman Norman Mineta, the former cabinet member in the Bush and Clinton Administrations.

After his Hill experience, Guillermo returned to the media, hosting his own talk show in Washington, D.C. on WRC Radio. He returned to California where he hosted talk shows in San Francisco at KSFO/KGO, and in Sacramento at KSTE/KFBK.

Guillermo's columns in the ethnic press inspired a roundtable discussion program that he created, hosted, executive produced, resulting in more than 100 original half-hour programs. "NCM-TV: New California Media" was seen on PBS stations in San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles, and throughout the state on cable.

Guillermo also spent time as a newspaper reporter covering the poor and the minority communities of California's Central Valley. His writing and reporting on California's sterilization program on the poor and minorities won him statewide and national journalism awards.

In 2015, Guillermo received the prestigious Dr. Suzanne Ahn Award for Civil Rights and Social Justice from the Asian American Journalists Association. The award, named after the late Korean American physician from Texas, recognizes excellence in the coverage of civil rights and social justice issues in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.

Guillermo, a native San Franciscan, went to Lowell High School, and graduated from Harvard College, where he was an Ivy Orator and class humorist, a distinction shared by fellow Lampoon members like James Downey (Saturday Night Live) and Conan O'Brien.

It's been a big summer for Simon Tam, musician and founder of the Slants, now trademarked, reappropriated, and unanimously affirmed by the Supreme Court.He also got married recently in his native state of California, so there's been much to celebrate.And...

When I first heard about Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park leaving "Hawaii Five-0," I couldn't believe it.The stars of the long-running TV crime procedural based in the 50th state simply asked for pay equity. They got the cold shoulder...

Tonight, Thursday, June 29 at 10:30 pm PT, is the last night of "Amok Monologues" at the San Diego International Fringe Festival. The one-man show got a great review in San Diego Story, a local arts publication. Coming next week after...

We have now arrived at the 35th year of these essential Asian American facts:On June 19, 1982, Chinese American Vincent Chin, 27, who was with friends at his own bachelor party, was mistaken for being Japanese by two white auto...

Say Asian or Asian American, and people think "Chinese."Most people know that's not the case, but that tends to be the prevailing stereotype. And not just among whites, blacks, and Latinos. It's harder when even Asian Americans believe in the stereotype."East...

Too much terror, too much news. And the really important event of last week--Trump's nose- thumbing at world unity on climate change by pulling out of the Paris Accord-- is practically forgotten. Not that Trump would like us to dwell on...

Memorial Day always winds up the annual observation of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.And what better way to remember the one story (along with the Japanese American Internment) that lingers as the moral compass of the community.For that reason, this...

On Emil Amok's Takeout, I corner Randall Park at the gala dinner of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS). a/k/a Asian Prom.Listen to my short conversation with the "Fresh Off the Boat" star, as well as an...

Among Filipinos, "Lola" is used out of respect for an older person, regardless of relation.It is a term of endearment, not a term of enslavement.Still, I was more surprised that Alex Tizon had died in March than that he had...

I wrote an essay about my mother that was in my collection of Emil Amok columns in my book Amok back in 2000. I read it here, along with a preamble on the podcast, because I've too often given short...

Donald Trump's classless firing of FBI director James Comey, just days after Comey reportedly asked for more money for an investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia, elevates the situation to historic levels. There is only one word to describe Donald...

My late mother, the wise Filipina, would always say, "Your health is your wealth." And when her health failed, she was thankful for her health care through Medicare. And now after today, we're a step closer to the danger zone....

I guess Dr. David Dao didn't want to drag it out.He didn't need 100 days. Neither did United. CEO Oscar Munoz continues his apology tour in the media with a new report that heralds changes in service, including an increase...

While you're marching on Earth Day at a science march near you, take your earbuds and listen to Emil Amok's Takeout.I mean, you're going to march, aren't you? If you've doubted that the environment is a racial justice issue, listen to...

When the U.S. drops the "mother of all bombs" on Afghanistan as a worldwide message, it's time for a little sobering perspective.Maybe we could take a little more time to treat all people with a little more respect, fairness and...

It is the unmistakable screech heard round the world.By now, you've surely seen that looping video, strung together from the good citizens with cell phone cameras who have learned that video doesn't lie (below via Washington Post). It loops on...

Mr. America First, Donald Trump, the man who never met a wall he didn't like, has no compassion for the undocumented. Same for the 24 million people he'd gladly lop off Obamacare, or the countless others impacted by his pro-military...

Art Shibayama, 86, was in Washington, DC and stood by the "Unfinished Business" display at the National Museum of American History. He was there with his friend, Blanca Katsura, also 86. Both were just 12 when they became part of a...

We already know how hard it is to get justice in America. It might get even harder. In my AALDEF podcast, I talk to two Asian American professors who have filed a discrimination suit against the University of Michigan.The professors filed...

I admit I wasn't sure if Islamophobia was going to be beaten back and stopped this time around.But now a Native Hawaiian judge in the nation's most Asian American state has spoken for all. Maryland piled on for good measure...

If you still haven't heard the story of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, don't worry.It's unclear if even Donald Trump knows, remembers, or cares. Sort of like his health care promises.In his joint address before Congress, the MCOWH (man currently occupying the White...

In our podcast Emil Amok's Takeout, I list off the key points about Travel Ban 2.0.Six out of the seven original countries are involved: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Only extensive lobbying got Iraq taken off.There are also exceptions...

The media, wanting so desperately to say something nice about Donald Trump, seemed to go out of their way to praise the president for his performance before a joint session of Congress last week.Trump seemed to find the right key...

If you're Asian American, you may have your head down and not be paying attention to all the new proposals on immigration and border security.But a new proposal could impact Asian Americans and their families and friends.The U.S. Customs and...

This is Oscar Weekend, a time when we're supposed to escape the humdrum of everyday life for the uplifting fantasies of movie-dom.And then everything changed, when real life turned into "Trump, the presidency."I even liked the most popular movie of...

February 19 is the 75th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin Roosevelt. It was the start of a nightmare for Japanese Americans who were rounded up and placed in internment camps during World War II.How...

The man who should be called Twitter Trump, the current White House resident, recently learned a lesson when he found out federal district judges are more than "so-called judges." And those 9th Circuit appeals court judges, they're no pushovers either.They know...

It was around half-time of what would turn out to be one of the greatest Super Bowls ever. The Atlanta Falcons were handily beating the New England Patriots 21-3, and everyone thought it was over. (It wasn't.) And then Lady...

UNSTRANDED: Eman Ali, 12, and her father Ahmed, sat before media at San Francisco International Airport on Super Bowl Sunday. They are among the first to travel to America after the travel restrictions from seven predominantly Muslim nations were lifted...

January 30th is the birthday of a true Asian American hero, Fred Korematsu. Since 2011, it's been a designated holiday in California and a few other states. It doesn't get you a day off. In fact, it's a day that...

It's been just a week, and Donald Trump's use of executive orders, even when the GOP has full control of both the House and Senate, is the clear sign of an insecure authoritarian comfortable with bypassing democracy.It's also a showboat...

Rep. Judy Chu (CA-27), chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, isn't at the Trump inaugural. In my phone conversation with her, Chu said Trump's attack on civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis was the last straw.But it's not...

The transition I call the "Trump Creep," aptly describing the process and the man, is about to end. The inaugural is here and now the show really begins.For some, these days since Nov. 8 have been like the "Twilight Zone."But...

Presidential historians will note this was the week the words "Trump," "prostitutes," and "urination" somehow found themselves used publicly in the same sentence.While the implied acts in the sentence aren't verifiable, the words are, and they appear in the dossier...

As Congress got back into action last week, there was one clear-cut enemy to the American public, but it wasn't Vladimir Putin. For some reason, Trump and the GOP love Putin.But this thing called Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care...

Where do you stand politically on anything in 2017? Judging from the first days, no one knows for sure, not even the professional pols. If you've been following what a Trump World would be like, we all got a taste of...

As we end the year and prepare for the dreaded 2017, I must thank you for reading my weekly musings on the pressing Asian American issues of the day.Based on your clicks, the election and general representation issues were among...

With the inaugural in less than a month, and Christmas just days away, this is a special year.Despair looms ahead.And that requires a special holiday treat.In the spirit of solidarity, I feel compelled to offer you the gift of perspective! Look...

If you don't have enough to argue about during the holidays with your family and friends (I mean, the Trump thing might get old before the inaugural), maybe it's time after Pearl Harbor Day to dredge up the controversy over...

This year on the day before Pearl Harbor Day, President Obama, said in his final address on national security that terrorists can kill innocent people, "but they don't pose an existential threat to our nation."He wasn't talking Jean-Paul Sartre.Before Trump-Think...

Filipino Americans in California are wondering about real estate transactions being initiated by Filipinos on tourist visas, who are selling retirement condos in Manila as unlicensed sales agents. It may even be a case of human trafficking. The story is important because...

President Obama may not be able to place Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court. But he's doing what he can in his final days. Like giving the Presidential Medal of Freedom to luminaries like Maya Lin, the creator of the...

If you haven't noticed, we live in a time where the political trend is quite simple. Things that would never happen before, that were once thought to be downright "inconceivable," are happening right now, and with stunning regularity. And it's not fake...

The attempt to bridge our country's great divide has begun with the first meeting in the White House between President Obama and his one-time birther tormentor, President-elect Trump. It's like we're in some disconnected time and place after that hate-filled scorched...

As an early bird, my vote is in the mail.If you haven't voted yet, vote now.Now is always the best candidate.Better than later.And maybe that's what finally got to FBI Director James Comey when he gave everyone his November surprise.He's...

Addison Russell is an Asian American name. And now he's a newly minted World Series Champion, the first Asian American of Filipino descent to become one since Tim Lincecum, three-time World Series winner while with the San Francisco Giants.After an epic...

Earlier in October, my dogs tore up a nerf-like facsimile of a Donald Trump head, thinking perhaps it was more nutritious than it looked. Many of my social media followers liked it. Maybe it helped them to design dog-proof Trump Halloween...

Donald Trump can't help himself. Even after the third presidential debate, he stood Thursday before an Ohio rally and couldn't give in. Instead, he said he would "totally accept" the election results. But then added: "If I win."That's a version of the...

I confess Trump's admission for his predilection of the Trumpian sexual offense known as the "pussy grab" distracted me so much in the last week I plumb forgot about Indigenous Peoples Day, Oct. 10.Sorry.I wasn't even able to appropriately dis...

For much needed contrast, after the sad spectacle of the Sunday presidential debate, I figured I needed some laughs. So immediately after watching it streamed live on CBSN, I caught a performance by the former Saturday Night Live Weekend Update anchor...

Today, you'll learn more about Asian Americans and the presidential campaign from the just released 2016 National Asian American Survey than you will from that Veep debate last night.Did you watch the Veep Debate--where the TV show "Veep" is better...

As October begins, and Asian America's more than 4 million Filipinos commemorate Filipino American History Month (as designated by the Filipino American National Historical Society), there's a new twist in the U.S.-Philippines relationship.The current Philippine president is a man who...

I've had pneumonia before, and it knocked me on my butt for nearly two weeks.So to see Hillary Clinton bounce back to continue her presidential campaign has earned her "Iron Woman" status in my eyes. But I've seen her in action...

Producer/Writer Alan Yang had the answer to Asian American invisibility in all of Hollywood. And he said it on the Emmys telecast live before millions watching around the nation. He had just won the comedy writing Emmy for co-authoring the "Parents"...

Plains, Georgia...In the land of presidential peanut farmers, I found myself to be the only full-blooded Filipino in the room at Maranatha Baptist Church, the spiritual home base for No. 39, President Jimmy Carter. And when the president looked into the...

On Sept. 7, there will be protests at every Philippine Embassy and consulate throughout the world, including New York and San Francisco, as part of a massive global demonstration against the proposed hero's burial for the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Will...

I had never been to the Philippines ever, or since.But I was there in the homeland of my parents on one of the most important days in the history of that country--Aug. 31, 1983.As a young American Filipino reporter for...

The Summer Olympics, the great quadrennial global escape, is over, and now we can all go back to worrying about Zika, Brazil's impending impeachment of its President Dilma Rousseff, and the games' biggest news story, American Ryan Lochte's gold medal...

The best thing about last weekend's Asian American Journalists Association convention in Las Vegas wasn't necessarily the Presidential Election Forum, co-presented with APIAVote.Oh, yeah, President Bill Clinton showed up. He's running for First Grandpa. More on him later in this...

Just when you thought it was bad enough he upset Filipinos worldwide--including the 4 million Asian Americans of Filipino descent in the U.S.--Donald Trump couldn't leave well enough alone. Or maybe to erase the memory of denigrating all Filipinos as terrorists...

On Friday, Hillary Clinton was at a joint meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists/National Association of Hispanic Journalists and mentioned a South Asian American, Khizr Khan.The Constitution-toting Khan has become democracy's "model minority supreme."The South Asian immigrant, Harvard-trained...

She's not using the middle name anymore. Maybe that's because it's a new era. She's her own woman now. But Hillary always had me at Rodham. Her father, Hugh, was a Navy chief petty officer who became a salesman, then...

Considering the evangelical tilt of the GOP, the only time Donald Trump came close to talking about God in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention was when he talked about himself. "I am your voice," Trump declared to...

Dr. Toribio Flores is an ear, nose, and throat guy at the Cleveland Clinic. And he's going to the Republican Convention."I'm not afraid," he tells me. But I know most of America is.We've arrived at the point many of us have...

When Dallas happened, I was already upset by the shootings all over the world this summer, from Bangladesh to Baton Rouge and Minnesota. But I was in Berkeley, Calif., where I was hoping a little art would help.Berkeley already puts...

I hope you have a bang up July Fourth. Our country and the world could use a good explosive, safe, and sane display of freedom and liberty.We've had too much of the opposite, the stifling, intimidating, freedom-robbing violence that puts all...

With Orlando still fresh in the national consciousness, is there anyone who doesn't know what constitutes a hate crime?And yet, when it comes to Asian Americans, America has not always been sure. That is one of the main lessons of the...

Father's Day is this weekend, so I'm thinking about my dad, again.After all these years, and despite my own dear children, I still defer to my late father.It's still his day. And now suddenly, thanks to Orlando and Donald Trump, it...

On the occurrence of the worst mass shooting and act of domestic terror in U.S. history, this is the kind of diversity we don't like to talk about.The perp is one of us.The alleged shooter is 29-year-old Omar Siddiqui Mateen,...

I was still a small boy when I first heard Muhammad Ali's infamous declaration that all the world heard. And remembered.It was the bellow of self-esteem that came deep from within Ali. It struck me deep in the heart.He was the...

Hillary Clinton changed her schedule and is back in California campaigning again. And it wasn't just to give that policy speech in San Diego. Her words were like scuds at the presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, of the now defunct...

In 1996, Asian Americans suffered from what I dubbed our ACDC problem: The Asian Campaign Donation Controversy. And it definitely disrupted Asian American involvement in the U.S. political process for at least a decade. So when CNN reported this week that the...

When Joyce Xi graduates from college next week, I hope the celebratory pride and joy she and her family experience will be so tremendous, it will blast away the cloud of suspicion and shame that has hovered over them the...

With everything so presumptive in politics these days, it's easy to see why the primary season has turned secondary. So Donald Trump crushing his GOP opponents in Nebraska and West Virginia was just page A4 in my morning newspaper on...

Happy Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month (the official name signed into law, as per President George H.W. Bush's pen), or Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, or AANHPI Month.By whatever name you choose, it's still May--our time to revel in our...

For an Asian American guy like me, who has a penchant to go amok, Prince's "Let's Go Crazy," with its purple banana reference, was always a favorite.But now the lyrics seemed to have a divine message:'Cause in this life Things are...

Color lines were broken on April 15, 1947, almost a generation before the Civil Rights Act. That still left a lot of barriers to break down, even after Jackie Robinson took his first step into fair territory on a major league...

I was just getting back to normal. Not from the overwhelming sentimentality of watching the original "American Idol" judges--Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson, and Simon Cowell--take their star turn on last week's series ending finale. No, that wasn't the striking finale moment...

I went back to Harvard last October, and there were Asians and Asian Americans everywhere.I even saw a Vietnamese sandwich truck at the foot of the Science Center, just outside the gates of Harvard Yard.Of course, it was outside.You might...

Hooray for the unions.For more than a generation since Ronald Reagan's takeout of air traffic controllers, unions have been taking it on the chin, in the shorts, and every other soft tissue place that can possibly hurt. And now as tech...

I confess to something very un-American. Or since it's me, would that be un-Asian American? Un-Filipino American?This week on the day after the attacks on Brussels, for the first time ever, I really did feel a bit of fear.It wasn't the...

Even as an American Filipino, an Asian American, it's hard not to be engaged by the historical news happening in Cuba.People are getting choked up over seeing the first American president in Cuba since Calvin Coolidge in 1928.(White House photo)...

Is Donald Trump a racist?That was a great first-round made-for-TV question from reporter Karen Tumulty at Wednesday's Democratic debate in Miami, put on by Univision, the Washington Post and carried by CNN. I kept wondering if anyone would have had the...

It was getting so bad on the 88th Oscars telecast, I had the sound turned down. But then Chris Rock introduced the Oscar accountants. It was a bad enough sight gag. I only saw the three Asian American kids with...

My dad once told me that when he first arrived in the U.S. in the 1920s, some Americans would say the family name in an odd way to his face.I always pronounced our name, Guillermo, the Filipino way: "Gill-yer-mo." But he...

The Twitterverse was abuzz as soon as the news broke that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had been found dead at a resort in West Texas.I saw honest expressions of shocked disbelief, some with a mixed sense of sadness and...

Oakland Raiders quarterback great Kenny Stabler getting elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame made my Super Bowl Weekend. For me, that overshadowed the corporate juggernaut known as the Super Bowl, with its 100 million-plus viewers worldwide. And considering there...

If you're not a fan of the Carolina Panthers or the Denver Broncos, what team do you root for if you even bother to watch Super Bowl 50?You might go ethnic.When it comes to football, Asian Americans must go deep...

Donald Trump not on the debate stage on Thursday night? Big deal. Neither was an Asian American. But Asian Americans in Iowa are hoping to make some noise at the Iowa caucuses.There are some Asian Americans there, you know.You can't tell...

I've talked about the lack of diversity in movies and TV forever in my pieces on this blog. And though the Oscars are once again all-white and deserving of our ire, Asian Americans of Filipino descent have reason to cheer...

State of the Union addresses are usually more "I have a list," than they are "I have a dream."But for this last go-round for President Obama, his list was shorter than normal, and the dream part was much larger.And this...

I hate guns. But I hate wimpier attempts at gun control more.And President Obama's latest attempt is so modest, so restrained, it hardly makes the NRA quake in its boots. Even the president admitted, it's hardly a conspiracy to take away...

In 2015, is there a bigger story for Asian Americans than Islamophobia?What? You're not Muslim? Aren't you a big-beach-umbrella-Asian American? You don't have to like sand.What about a golf umbrella? It amazes me how I still hear comments from people who...

Next to Santa getting stuck in a chimney due to an overly large body part, can one imagine a tragedy worse than what unfolded live at the Miss Universe Pageant on the Sunday before Christmas? Oh, you didn't see it? You,...

If the fifth Republican debate made you feel fearful and anxiety ridden, here's something to celebrate instead. On Dec. 17, 1943, 72 years ago this week, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Magnuson Act, which repealed the Chinese Exclusion Laws. They...

It's a coincidence that the President should give his standup Oval Office terrorism talk on the eve of Pearl Harbor Day, Dec.7, the day that lives in infamy.Unless you're Asian American, of course, because Dec. 7 simply started the clock that would...

As the investigation continues in the San Bernardino mass shooting case, I'm wondering if the search for a hard terrorist connection will result in the general terrorizing of innocent Muslim Americans.And if anyone is wondering about the innocent South Asian...

Even on Sunday, I was still in a post-Thanksgiving Day stupor--watching football with the sound turned down. But when the news came on, I was wide awake.I saw a picture of a woman who was unmistakably Asian. She was one...

Does it feel like 1942 to you yet?America, if you haven't noticed, isn't feeling like itself these days.Instead of large, gracious and visionary--the bastion of freedom and liberty---our country and its leaders are feeling puny and small. Donald Trump "Put...

For Asian Americans, two issues always give us the moral high ground: the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans and the fight over equity pay for Filipino American veterans of WWII.But just because you have the moral high ground doesn't mean...

I'm still trying to understand the events of this week in the red part of the blue state, California.The news was jarring on Wednesday morning. A stabbing at UC Merced? Is that Berkeley? No, more like three hours away. Merced...

If you had a choice, who would you rather be--longtime criminal Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow or San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee? Not just for one devilish day on Halloween, but in real life. If you need help, here's Ed Lee...

On Sunday, California celebrates the first statewide Larry Itliong Day, honoring the Filipino American farm worker labor leader on his 102nd birthday. And what a way to start the final week of October, as Filipino American History Month winds down to...

Nick Kristof's column reframing Asian Americans as the "model minority" caused quite a stir last week. And the New York Times op-ed star's response published on Facebook probably won't win over his many critics. I wasn't sold. (See my original column...

When the presidential candidates square off and debate in this campaign, I hope they don't think Asian Americans are such "success stories" they can simply write us off when it comes to public policy. And I hope someone doesn't point to...

With the help of the Pew Research Center's new data analysis, I have seen the future and indeed, it is all about us. When I'm 100 or so, I fully expect my Filipino nurse/caretaker to cheer me up with the...

As I child, I remember hearing the news about the presidential campaign of 1960.People made a big deal of the fact that John F. Kennedy--the Democrat running against Richard Nixon--was Catholic.Like there was something wrong with that?Apparently back then, yes....

There's a reason why you won't see an Asian American on the main tier of CNN's GOP debate. Or any presidential debate in the near or distant future. Republican or Democratic, it doesn't matter. Most people who see an Asian American...

If you're an American Filipino, an Asian American foodie, or anyone who relishes fresh, local food---before you take another bite, take the time to remember who picked it. Then look up to the skies and thank the Filipinos in the fields...

I read the Wall Street Journal's tweet on Sunday night about China's president, seen by Asians and Asian Americans around the world. Is there any question the Wall Street Journal must apologize? And yet by Monday, nothing.Just this non-apology. We recently removed...

While in college, I was a TV news intern at WNAC, now WHDH in Boston. Later, I was a full-fledged TV professional and worked as a 20-something reporter at KOLO in Reno, KXAS in Dallas, and KRON and KPIX in...

One hundred twenty years ago, in the latter part of August, the U.S. picked a fight with Wong Kim Ark, who then took his case all the way to the Supreme Court.Wong was simply coming back from a vacation to...

I'm at the Asian American Journalists Association's annual convention this week, a time for personal reflection. Why didn't I become a doctor or lawyer? Just kidding.From Orwell's "Why I Write:" "From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six,...

At the first GOP debate, as Republicans flooded the stage with presidential candidates on both the varsity and JV level, I didn't hear a thing about one very important topic.Did anyone even mention the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights...

Simon Tam isn't giving up. But he admits he was taken aback when an unnecessarily harsh amicus brief by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association was filed this week against his efforts to trademark his rock band's name, "The Slants."...

If we want a new race conversation, we'd better start with a better approach to race polling.Earth to everyone. It's not a black and white world anymore. Especially not in the U.S. So why are polls on race, in their...

Randall Park has had such a big year as the star of "The Interview" and as the comedic anchor of "Fresh Off the Boat." He even won a V3con award from the Asian American Journalists Association in Los Angeles this...

This may be the best time ever for Asian Americans to realize what's really in their best interest. And though it may surprise you, it could actually be this thing called "affirmative action."It sure isn't suing Harvard for discrimination. In fact, the...

Korean American Ryan Garner-Carpenter, 27, walked down Market Street at SF Pride, a new man of options.Ask him what he's into and he'll say leather and whips. But if he was into all things bondage before last week, now he can...

"I'm doing fine," Ronald Ebens told me on Wednesday, a day after the June 23 anniversary of Vincent Chin's brutal murder, when I asked how he was doing.He was quick to add, "I had a good Father's Day with my...

On June 23, 1982, Vincent Chin died in a Detroit area hospital after efforts to revive him failed. Four days before, on June 19, the night of his bachelor party, Chin suffered a brutal blow to the head with a...

Rachel Dolezal nearly wrecked everyone's Father's Day. You don't often see a daughter outed so publicly by her white father for passing as an African American, but I guess post-racial filial love isn't necessarily unconditional. I admit to being somewhat sympathetic of...

It's Loving Day, folks, and we might as well make it a whole darn weekend of happy mixing, because Asian Americans really had more of a role in the legendary Loving case than you think.It wasn't just a white/black thing,...

Just when you think we're safe in 2015, and Asian Americans have a real foothold in American society--living stereotype-free without fear of discrimination--along comes a story like this one involving the Hwang family.It's like a brick of firm tofu to...

China's recent military change? Bruce Jenner's sex change got more attention. But maybe it's time we all took note.About China.Forget the old joke about the Chinese Navy being a bunch of junk.It's big and ready to strike in the South China...

Maybe retirement in May was really David Letterman's Asian Pacific American Heritage Month tribute.On Monday, the kick-off to the last week of the "Late Show," Sue Hum, Letterman costume designer, got her send-off in the "Top Ten Things I'll miss...

What's better: four As or five?The four As are those who make up what I call the "Affirmative Action Asian Americans." The five As would be those I dub the "Anti-Affirmative Action Asian Americans."If you haven't noticed either group, don't worry,...

How silly to ask during Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. But really, do Asian American lives matter? Not just the super-achieving model minority cubs breastfed from Tiger Moms, but the struggling Asian American immigrants who are seldom heard, hardly...

I remember seeing Bruce Jenner throwing a javelin at the Olympics in 1976. It was the same time Renee Richards was challenging the tennis world to allow a trans woman to compete as a pro.Richards' fight went all the way...

Serap Jangbu Sherpa, 46, was hanging on every bit of communication from the base camp in the Himalayas -by text, online, Facebook--when I called him on Saturday.It was like he was hanging on the side of the mountain he loved.Serap...

We're coming up quickly to Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May, and once again, I'm wondering where we are with our umbrella term that expands and becomes inclusive. Or has the term become meaningless? We know it's a political...

The New York City cop caught on video in a racist rant, wailing on a South Asian driver, has apologized, but to me it just rings hollow.In an exclusive interview with WNBC-TV, Patrick Cherry tells his side of the story,...

When the verdict in the Ellen Pao discrimination case came down last Friday, I didn't have a good feeling. Individual cases of discrimination are so hard to prove. Pao had some evidence that there was an old boy's club, but...

Patsy Mink was a 12-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Hawaii--the first woman of color and first Asian American woman elected to Congress in 1964. She ran for president in 1972. And for all you March Madness...

At face value, Vincent Wu, 73 years young this week, looks like many successfully retired Asian American engineers. At Atari, the company that brought the world "Pong," Wu led the effort to bring "Donkey Kong" home--to the home PC, that...

A fundamental story pattern on "Fresh off the Boat" has emerged. Eddie's hip-hop clash is the New American Asian Fusion that sets off the comedic and leads us over the bridge to racial harmony!It all came into focus this week...

There's something about a march. It's not a parade. It's a march. People together. Maybe arm in arm, maybe not. But definitely believing in the same principles, and moving forward in the same direction. Does anyone doubt that sense of unity...

By the time you read this, the whole world will have watched the Oscars. And while there's a great chance of someone on the red carpet "wearing an Asian American," I am sure of this: There's absolutely no chance an...

The Lunar New Year is coming, bringing the prospect of good luck and great fortune.We hope.After last week, we all need something inside that proverbial big red envelope.Let's start with justice.If you're NYPD Officer Peter Liang, you have to be...

Eddie Huang, producer, chef, memoirist, former lawyer, all-around bad dude, and self-proclaimed "human panda," was born in Washington, D.C. on March 1, 1982. He was in diapers when I was well into my television news career, the first Filipino American on...

Fred Korematsu would have been 96 on Friday, January 30, and if you don't know him, you should know why he's important. Even if you do know Korematsu's basic story, you might be surprised by some details here. There was...

If you're an Asian American like me, you may be watching movies and media for any presence of Asian or Asian American anything. It's like our "AA-dar." Among the Oscar-nominated movies of note, mine went off in "Boyhood," when Mason crashes at...

More than Jennifer Lopez's dress, it was Margaret Cho on the Golden Globes that made me do a double-take last week. And she was in that sexy North Korean military drag.At first glance, I just wasn't sure it was her....

I always wondered whether I could create a ruckus by getting a voting membership in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, by virtue of my column "Emil Amok" appearing in a Philippines publication. You know, as the second coming of dictator...

Je suis Charlie. Nous sommes Charlie. Can you tell I was a Francophile in high school? (The man can conjugate an irregular verb!) My French high school teachers were teachers' union radicals who had an impact. I loved everything French...

I won't waste your time. Here's the problem with that "Saturday Night Live" Asian American Doll sketch right up front: It's so self-consciously aware of pandering to diversity that it's really a blatant attack on remedies for equality, fairness, and...

And to think we'd heard it all when the Senate report on CIA torture gave us that memorable headline phrase, "rectal rehydration."With hummus and pine nuts, it may be the gift that keeps on giving. But there's so much more...

Turns out I have more in common with Eric Garner than just the initials E.G.Earlier this year, I wrote about how I was confronted at a car rental facility near a major airport in Kentucky. I simply wanted an upgrade on...

Asian Americans aren't immune to this feeling.If you are person of color in our society and have experienced the loss of a family member or loved one to a gun death, as I have, then you know the feeling well.It's...

Immigration reform? By executive action? The thing Asian Americans have talked about for nearly a year now?Yes, yes, yes.According to media reports, the plan would provide deportation relief for up to 5 million people. It would expand Deferred Action for...

The national midterm narrative so far has been about how voters repudiated President Obama and his policies.But this isn't the Asian American narrative.Neither is it Elaine Chao standing next to her husband, the presumptive new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.No,...

Pardon my October. I've been busy being American Filipino during Filipino American History Month. And in the moments that remain, I've been nervously watching the San Francisco Giants break and unbreak my heart, until they finally decided to win the...

I was too busy watching baseball this week to catch Bill O'Reilly on "The Daily Show," where he defended his belief in the Model Minority myth and how it's evolved into a sense of "Asian American Privilege."Who needs that bunk...

These days, in the internet era when Bush's NSA policies continue under Obama, it must be presumed that everyone is under some kind of surveillance.Even innocent Asian Americans.And given the global nature of things, it would take a real leap...

October means new TV shows, the best baseball, and my favorite ethnic heritage month--Filipino American History Month.Or, as I like to call it, "American Filipino" History Month.I flip it. On purpose. It's my linguistic revolution to force others to see...

I'm a big believer in art when justice fails. I'm doing an excerpt of my solo performance show, "Emil Amok," at the San Francisco Public Library on Oct. 9 at 6 pm. It's part of "Compositions," the Alvarado photo exhibit...

Forty-seven tomahawk cruise missiles in fighter bombers were sent to bomb 14 targets in Syria, the Department of Defense told NBC and other news media, which this morning released a DOD tape of some of the action.And now you can...

Thirteen years later, we all have learned at least this key lesson: Al-Qaeda is not Iraq.But after President Bush's faulty logic used the terror attacks of 9/11 to justify war in Iraq, it seems President Obama is willing to make...

I found this in my hamper today.It was a reminder of an event I covered on one of the coldest days I've ever experienced--January 20, 2009.That's when "Hope and Change" supposedly had come to Washington.Five years later and we're still...

Andrew Peng, 20, looked like any other Asian American student. Only deep in his heart, he knew he was a chicken.Especially with his special virtual reality goggles on. At UC Berkeley, one of the most Asian American campuses in the nation,...

As we approach Labor Day, I ponder the map of my labor life, my resume, and realize it is the history of the boom and bust of the American economy.Hired in good times, reduced in recessions. And, because I'm an...

The spectre of the U.S. Justice Department coming down on the First Amendment rights of reporter James Risen should have been bad enough. (See my blog post on Risen here.)But as the Asian American Journalists Association convened in Washington, DC this...

In a time when all the world could use a laugh, we got a shocker.Robin Williams, who had spent so much time entertaining the world, had forgotten to leave something for himself.As someone who had covered Williams as part of...

In my California, home of the severe drought, I grew up listening to the Beach Boys and the dream of an "endless summer."I can't imagine this summer in Israel and Gaza, home of what appears to be the "endless war."Actually,...

When Richard Nixon died in 1994, 20 years after he left office, I can recall how almost all the news stories about him in Washington were like a gigantic free pass. I suppose if you deserve a free pass, the...

As an Asian American visitor to Malaysia, I climbed the steps of Batu Caves, a Hindu shrine just north of Kuala Lumpur. There I was both panhandled and entertained by an enterprising macaque. One in particular struck me as especially curious,...

On Fox News' "The Five," there's a move afoot to make it "The Four."That's because the show's co-host and token liberal Bob Beckel used the racial slur "Chinaman" while ranting about Chinese hackers, whom Beckel says are the "single biggest...

On the current immigration issue, President Obama is doing what a politician with no real direction can do: Throw money at the problem.Asking Congress for $3.7 billion is actually a puny response in a world where $600 billion goes to...

How about some fireworks to start just to cheer us up? After a week in which Hobby Lobby made reshaping democracy a new form of conservative arts and craft activity, and residents in a small California town blocked innocent refugee...

I don't know why I didn't do it this year. Maybe because it's too painful, and rounded-year anniversaries give us an easy excuse to let it go.But I couldn't help noticing this year, as I looked at the calendar and...

A day after the Washington football team's trademark of the Redskins name was cancelled, activists are cheering, but the effect is the same.We are still far from home on the range, or anywhere else, where seldom is heard a disparaging...

Father's Day is closing in on us. And while I love to talk about baseball and my dad (see a reprise of my traditional Father's Day essay here), my dad really was all about the Sport of Kings. That's right,...

You could tell by his face--Seattle Pacific University student Jon Meis was at least part Asian American.But the mainstream media mostly used one word to describe him: hero.Meis wasn't a victim, like my cousin Stephen in San Francisco on May...

I thought I was pretty hardened after my cousin Stephen Guillermo's recent shooting death. But when I heard about the Isla Vista rampage and the 7 dead and 13 wounded, I realized Stephen's case was just a subset of the...

The Guillermo family buried its dead last week. In a bit of justice for my 26-year-old cousin Stephen, thank goodness I checked my email during the funeral.Dr. Sophie Clavier, his advisor at San Francisco State, had informed me the school would...

We all know how elusive justice can be. But just try seeking it after a family member has been murdered—a victim of gun violence.Amisi Kachepa, the self-professed killer of my cousin, 26-year old Stephen Guillermo, was released from San Francisco...

Let's not bury the lead. I already have to bury the dead.Stephen Guillermo, 26, my first cousin, once removed, was shot and murdered in his apartment building early Saturday morning after a night on the town with friends in San...

May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Is everybody AAPI?Perhaps not, especially if we are forced to revisit the Vincent Chin murder reinterpreted by someone who is not Asian and was not a direct participant in any of the...

With his media conference in New York on Tuesday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver elevated his game for America.There was much talk that this would be a defining moment for the league. How about society?By his actions, Silver was more than...

A strike? Boycott? Talk of a union?Not exactly what you'd expect to hear from a humble Nepalese sherpa. But these days, the Sherpa wants to be seen more as an elite mountaineer and less of a lowly manservant/mule.Indeed, if Twitter...

First, the good news of Good Friday, at least in terms of Asian American firsts.In a small town in California, the first Hmong American judge in the nation will be sworn in. Paul Lo will take the bench as a...

Tired of that old positive stereotype? You know, the "Model Minority"?If you are, then the FBI sting operation involving California State Senator Leland Yee and 28 others is something of a godsend.The case is an all-encompassing model minority buster.Don't care...

Here's when I last saw California State Senator Leland Yee.I was the emcee of a community event at the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco last October, and Yee was the featured speaker. The event honored the day the U.S. landed...

Grace Lee Boggs rolls onto the big screen with the aid of her senior hybrid (a walker with wheels!), gazing at an old ruin of a Detroit auto plant--a relic of America's failed industrial past.But next to all that historical...

For a change, there's a movement to restore affirmative action, and not to end it.Unfortunately, because of some short-sighted Asian Americans, SCA 5 may die before it can get to the electorate.SCA 5 is Senate Constitutional Amendment No. 5, which...

"12 Years a Slave" won an Oscar for Best Picture, but don't think that we've entered some enlightened period of post-racial bliss. You saw proof of that if you caught the Oscar-worthy performances for "best racist smear campaign, in a supporting...

Arthur Chu won't be on "Jeopardy" this weekend. Like most of America, he'll be watching the Academy Awards.Just don't ask him a hypothetical question like "Oscar Nominees for $2000."I stumped him. Chu doesn't know. "'12 Years a Slave' nominated?" he...

By now, you should know that Asian Americans are the xenophobes' delight. And if I didn't have the "Day of Remembrance" to recall the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, my binge watching of "House of Cards" confirms...

I don't grouse anymore about the lack of diversity in the Winter Olympics and how it's still essentially a whiteout. That's because despite the retirement of nine-team medalist Apolo Anton Ohno, there are still some truly great competitors like Shani Davis,...

The start of the Lunar New Year is as good a time as any to consider the real State of Asian America. Judging from some recent events, it's not nearly as perfect as you Tiger Mom lovers out there might...

I hope my Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) colleague Randy Gener is well enough to watch the Super Bowl.This year, the Super Bowl will have an Asian American of Filipino descent headlining the halftime show---pop icon Bruno Mars. Mars, who...

Sunday will be a regular community-type day in the Silicon Valley district of Congressman Mike Honda (CA-17), even though he finds himself fighting for his political life.Honda shares the marquee as "special guest "and internment camp survivor at the Korematsu...

I don't know whether Justin Bieber, driving his rented yellow Lamborghini, saw himself as a thug, but his arrest for alleged DUI and drag racing in Miami certainly makes him "thug-like," and with a newly minted record, he is definitely...

Pardon me for being late to the party, but I see and hear too much about modern slavery, hate, and injustice in today’s world—-toward all beings and species. So when the movie first came out, I was in no rush...

I confess I'm probably one of the few in this country ever to own a pair of Dennis Rodman Converse basketball shoes. You know, the ones with the funky sun signs on the ankles. In white. High-tops. (They had to...

I am not immune. The holidays mean movies, and I thought I'd begin the season by indulging in the massive promotional juggernaut that is Anchorman 2.I expected it to be silly and stupid. But racist too? That caught me by...

On December 17, the 40th day after Super Typhoon Haiyan, the world has moved on.In the U.S., we debate the race of Santa Claus. Breaking news is elsewhere. News of the broken remains in Tacloban and the Central Philippines, where Filipino Catholics...

The most revealing thing about Julie Chen on the Letterman show the other night was not her off-the-shoulder black dress, or the high-heeled shoes that give her an awkward waddle, or even the phony "fly-by" wave to the audience that...

In 1977, I was too late for Vietnam. The war's end made my draft lottery number obsolete. It was also too early to talk about the shortcomings of civil rights in America. But there was one moral eyesore in the world all...

I just came back from Asia, so I have Asia on the mind. What do you know--on Monday night football, there was the NY Giants' Justin Tuck doing the prayer-bow Thai move after sacking RGIII. It was the wai, the...

I've played basketball at the Chinese Rec Center in San Francisco's Chinatown as a kid, but this was a one-on-one game no one would have expected. An undocumented Asian student in America, Ju Hong, 24, a DREAM activist from San...

Called Yolanda in the Philippines, Haiyan internationally, by any name, the super typhoon has heaped on a sense of despair and helplessness.Though we all knew it was coming from the warnings in both old and new media, there was still...

Lorne Michaels is a comedic genius, sure. But from what I know from people who have worked at "Saturday Night Live," Michaels rules his comic fiefdom with an iron hand.So what's he got against a little diversity?The lack of African...

On the weekend of his 100th birthday, it was the next best thing to having Larry Itliong there. We didn’t have a special Ouija board, just a cassette tape with his voice. At a symposium in his hometown of Stockton,...

Asian Americans, dutifully trying to meet early decision college deadlines last week, may have found themselves--like my daughter---on the Common App website.After the experience, I'm not sure if any of the apps got to the colleges to which she applied.But...

"You go to the United States where they pick money on trees," Larry Itliong, the Filipino American labor leader and the equal to Cesar Chavez, says on a special tape recording of a classroom talk at Debra Panganiban Louie's Asian...

Bullies had their way with the public last week in Congress and on a highway in New York City. I thought that for inspiring real rage, there could be nothing quite like watching video bits of the Sen. Ted Cruz...

It's hard not to think of the final episode of "Breaking Bad" right about now, because its recent shutdown is all very natural. The federal government's isn't. And in the interest of our democracy, it is worth a spoiler alert....

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler saved an awkward Emmy show opener with a few well-timed twerk jokes. But then Fey stumbled onto the stage throwing her cleavage out of alignment, and the show never quite regained its footing.No matter how...

For those of us who scan mainstream American culture for blips of Asian American life, it was quite a wild weekend when the two biggest stories in our universe--Julie Chen's secret revelation of double-eyelid surgery and the unprecedented Asian American...

It was practically the impossible dream, to think that President Obama could match the oratorical greatness of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech---even on the 50th anniversary of its delivery at the March on Washington. I would...

As the speeches ended, Asian Americans were at the start of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.I was in front of the march banner and took this photo. I could see Rev. Al Sharpton and Rep. John Lewis....

If you’re a card-carrying member of the Model Minority, the ones always vying to be first, then why aren’t you at the front of the line for the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington?The historic march in 1963—that galvanized...

Too bad law enforcement agents never seem to profile the likes of Whitey Bulger and James Lee DiMaggio.For some reason, the white bad guy stereotypes just don't stick like the black, Latino hoodie hood.But this week, we got lots of...

If you haven't noticed, in one week the anti-Asian/Asian American meter was off the charts and maxing out in the red.But it's likely that you, like everyone else, probably didn't even notice. Asian American cultural slights? Are you kidding? Who takes...

If you’re a CNBC watcher, chances are you barely have the attention span for a stock ticker. So here’s an executive summary: The phrase “Chink in the Armor” shouldn’t be used—unless you’re complaining about how Guinevere screwed up your dry...

Three mid-level managers at KTVU-Oakland, CA were fired over the broadcasting of fake Asian names in the coverage of the Asiana Airlines crash Wednesday, according to reports on SFGate.com. It was first reported on Rich Lieberman’s 415 Media website.Years ago,...

If the George Zimmerman verdict doesn’t feel like justice, it’s because his legal team in the Trayvon Martin killing focused on a self-defense strategy. Nothing wrong with that; it proved to be a good one for Zimmerman. Especially when the prosecution...

Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia, the two 16-year-old Chinese school girls who died in the Asiana Airlines crash this weekend, aren't around to experience the kind of knee-jerky modern racism toward Asians the tragedy inspired in both mainstream and social...

Sandra Hernandez and Mailee Wang finally got their June wedding--to each other.San Francisco got the jump on history, opening its City Hall for business over the weekend with the Supreme Court ruling on Prop 8 having cleared the way for...

It was like an early Independence Day celebration.Pride parades took place in New York, Houston, and San Francisco over the weekend. As a straight male, I witnessed the scene in all three cities in the past. (I remember going to...

To me, Supreme Court rulings always tend to be so Solomonic.But in Fisher v. University of Texas, SCOTUS, in its wisdom, actually found a way to cut the baby in half without cutting up the baby.Instead of using Fisher as...

The Supreme Court has a flair for the dramatic. But it's not quite "Waiting for Godot." We do know all the critical decisions people have been waiting for will be decided before the Court's summer recess. Besides, those robes need...

If you've had time to let it sink in this weekend as you touched and manipulated your second brain--a/k/a your smartphone--then you know Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old CIA operative out of Hawaii, really shouldn't be in hiding. He should be...

Hipsters are so hip, but apparently they are not too hip for racism.How else can anyone explain the blatant racial slur on the May 25 episode of “Maron” on IFC, the Independent Film Channel?Just so you don’t think I’m some...

My 17-year-old daughter came into the living room the other night while I watched HBO's "Behind the Candelabra," the Liberace biopic based on the tell-all book by his chauffeur/lover/victim/plaintiff Scott Thorson."What are you watching?" my daughter asked."A movie about Liberace,"...

In the immigration vote this week, the new political pecking order was laid out in the Senate Judiciary Committee.Corporations, si. (Especially the hi-tech ones like Facebook and Friends, and all their lobbyists.)Families, no. (Not if you want to petition for...

This just in--well, not really, but you may not have heard it in the news since it has nothing to do with the IRS, the AP, Benghazi, or Angelina Jolie's voluntary double mastectomy.A bipartisan group in the House revealed late...

I've given funny, satirical speeches before. And while a steady stream of laughs is the objective, it's like baseball. Stringing together some titters and chortles is like bunting your way to victory. It helps if you can hit a few home...

This was the dark-skinned suspect that turned the world upside down last week.As the media takes its time to catch its breath after the coverage of the Boston blasts, it's interesting to review how race played a major part in...

The sweeping new Senate immigration bill finally unveiled this week was delayed because of the bombings at the Boston Marathon on April 15. But because Boston is on everyone's minds, it's unlikely anything will happen to it for awhile. So let's begin...

If you have ever wondered why "No.1" in newspapers is spelled that way instead of "#1," or "Number 1," or "Number One," well, that's AP style.And the No.1 reason it exists is to enable the Associated Press's cookie-cutter approach in...

If you relied on an e-mail notification on your admission to college last week, you may or may not have been accepted--or rejected--by the college of your choice. A faulty e-mailing program is being blamed for thousands of e-mails...

With snow in Washington, the "Deck the Halls" phrase, "Don we now our gay apparel," comes to mind. It's 2013 and already we've seen a former detractor, GOP Senator Rob Portman, persuaded to come out for same-sex marriage in support of...

Waiting for the Supreme Court ruling in Fisher? Forget it. The fix is in. Affirmative Action for Whites is coming as more colleges use class to trump race in college admissions.Didn't you read the front page of the New York...

Shucks. There's no ban on over-sized sugary soda in New York after all. But that's OK. I ban soda all on my own. I don't drink soda anymore. Not through these lips. When I have to slake a thirst, I keep it...

Last week's SCOTUS hearing on the Voting Rights Act provided us with yet another reminder about an important factor to consider in voting for president: the quality of Supreme Court justices our top office holder is likely to appoint. Presidents,...

As we go into Oscar weekend, the favorite for Best Picture seems to have cheering agents in everyone's medicine cabinet.They have scary medicinal names like amoxapine and ariprazole, but are better known by their patented brands like Asendin and Abilify--names...

For Asian Americans, the best thing about the 2013 State of the Union may have been that outgoing Energy Secretary Steven Chu was given a somewhat left-handed parting gift by the president, who named Nobel Laureate Chu "designated survivor." He...

If you just got the invite to that racist Asian-themed party last week at Duke University (I know it was in your spam box), don't worry. You didn't miss anything. It was the same old racist fare, standard ching-chong stuff--people...

At the Fred T. Korematsu Day celebration in San Francisco on Sunday, most of the honorees had passed on and were represented by their scions.But I managed to sit next to one of the originals, 98-year-old Mabel Fong.If you're Asian...

The mug of my first cup of coffee on this day reads "Ebenezer Baptist Church--where the dream began." I got it while in Atlanta recently when I visited Dr. King's church and the eternal flame that marks his gravesite. So...

I was floored this morning when I happened to see former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (Asian America's governor?) plugging his new movie on "FOX and Friends." Given the big stories of the day (the Lance Armstrong interview, Manti Te'o, the...

With the Obama administration mirroring the Bush administration when it comes to the extension of wiretapping and surveillance laws, it seems that any die-hard believer in democracy must add to his or her list of New Year's resolutions. In...

The formal name for it is the "American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012," but I don't know anyone who feels all that relieved after what informally should be named "The Imperfect Compromise to Avoid the Fiscal Cliff of 2012."The president...

So how does anyone really understand the GOP's side on the Fiscal Cliff talks? I wouldn't get too wrapped up with it, if I were you. Imagine John Boehner as Grandmaster Flash rapping, "Don't push me cause I'm close to...

As the details of Newtown come trickling in, now is the time for a little perspective and personal reflection.Once upon a time, I wrote a satirical piece on gun violence in America.I'm a typical common sense American. (You can tell...

This week, President Obama said right-to-work laws were actually "the right to work for less money."I can relate.Emil For Real knows the power of right-to-work laws.That was my DJ name circa 1974 in Texas, a classic right-to-work state.But I wasn't...

If a picture tells a thousand words, maybe it's good that we have that photo of Ki Suk Han desperately trying to pull himself off a New York subway track as a train approached him.It's really all you need to...

California's Asian Americans seem in synch with an approach that would tax the wealthy. A new post-election poll this week showed that 65 percent of Asian American voters supported an initiative that would raise taxes on those over $250,000 in...

If you're one of the fantasists out there salivating over the Thanksgiving trailers of the upcoming film, "The Hobbit," then you're probably turning a blind eye to the news that 27 animals died in the production of the movie.Twenty-seven. That's...

Hmmm....Petraeus rhymes with "Betray us"? I don't think he did, but it sounds like the mindset of the highly decorated, super-achieving general who found himself undressed in e-mails. It's reported he's so guilt-ridden for his lack of discretion that he...

For the GOP, election night on Tuesday was like a political version of Hurricane Sandy.It left a Romney-led party trounced and bewildered, staring at a brand new landscape it had failed to prepare for --a totally new American electorate, rich...

If you are suffering from what I call "pollsy," the state of being bombarded by one campaign poll after another, do yourself a favor. Ignore most of them. Save your energy for the only one that counts. On Tuesday, November...

Baseball is still America's pastime, though the final game of the World Series on Sunday may have been eclipsed by the fear of Hurricane Sandy, as well as the public's love of that other game, the brutish football. Indeed, Sandy's...

I'm still not a fan of how Saturday Night Live portrayed Chinese factory workers with black wigs, black-frame glasses and ching-chong accents two weeks ago.But the program may have redeemed itself by unveiling a tour-de-force performance by the unbelievably talented...

I called it the "New Charlie Chan-ism" when it surfaced on Saturday Night Live two years ago with its depiction of Chinese President Hu Jintao at a mock press conference. But this past weekend SNL's "Charlie Chan" style is back,...

After the Supreme Court hearing earlier this year on the Affordable Care Act and this week's hearing on Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin and affirmative action, I have a new appreciation for tea leaves.They have far greater predictive...

If you're one of those undecided Asian Americans out there (32 percent nationwide, according to the recent National Asian American Survey), you really only have one question that should tip the scales for you: Where do the candidates stand on...

Who is the choice of Asian Americans in the 2012 presidential election?Forty-three percent of likely Asian American voters support President Obama while just 24 percent back Mitt Romney, according to the new National Asian American Survey, the most comprehensive political...

If the Democrats had answered the Republicans' Clint Eastwood star-turn by going Gangnam-style at its convention (imagine a hybrid donkey-horse dance and the repetitive phrase "Hey, Sexy Lady"), who knows the kind of bounce the president would have had.As it...

How good was President Barack Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention? In many ways, he's hurt by the same thing that hurts all exceptional people of color who have done extraordinary things. You're always hampered by such high expectations....

Everything the Republicans did last week, the Democrats appear to be doing better than their counterparts in just about every way this week.From day one, the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina seemed to have a different energy and...

You can add "Eastwooding" an empty chair as a new phrase in the political lexicon, but did Clint Eastwood make Mitt Romney's day? The GOP's? Obama's? (Uh, sorry, I can't do that to myself.) This was intended to be a...

Are you watching the Republican National Convention? Or does the sight of Chris Christie make you want to go on a diet from politics?I've covered my share of GOP conventions and have been scarred by having witnessed such diversity moments...

Ever read a poll and ask, "Did they bother to ask any Asian Americans?" I've been asking that for as long as I've been in journalism. I remember one so-called "comprehensive" poll taken years ago about sex. Everyone was represented...

Abigail Fisher seems to have done remarkably well for someone who claims to be so victimized. From a receptionist, she's risen to a financial analyst position at Xerox. Far from destitute, she's a young person with a decent job. A success. And if...

On Twitter, I saw pictures of the national day of solidarity with Sikhs on Wednesday night, just days after the temple shooting in Wisconsin.The best sources? Once again, it was the social networks, Twitter and Facebook. I didn't see any...

Like the Olympics, it happens every four years. But you won't see a lot of spandex at the convention of minority journalists called Unity, happening this week in Las Vegas. You won't see a lot of black journalists...

Get a good look. On Monday, the Joker appeared. James Holmes, the alleged gunman at the Aurora Batman viewing, made his first appearance in court and through the media, the world stage.He was silent, except for his red-dyed hair, and a...

What's up New York? In two weeks, the most marketable and best known Asian Americans in the country--hoop star Jeremy Lin and TV anchor Ann Curry--are given the boot from their Big Apple perch and we're not supposed to take...

It's one thing to celebrate patriotism and freedom on July Fourth. But by July 13th, patriotism has all the currency of your fireworks' spent gunpowder. When the boom, the beer, and watermelon are gone, for most of us, our Fourth...

After 30 years, the killer of Asian American icon Vincent Chin told me in an exclusive interview that the murder known as a hate crime, wasn't about race, nor does he ever even remember hitting Chin with a baseball bat. Incredible...

Call it a cosmic coincidence that Rodney King--a victim of the most infamous police beating caught on video tape--died on Sunday. His death comes just a few months after the 20th anniversary of one of the main outcomes of his...

In 2009, Manny Pacquiao came into AT&T Park like a rock star to throw out the first pitch at a Giants game. It had to be San Francisco's first all-Filipino battery with Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum, himself half-Filipino, behind...

Oy vey! Did you hear the one about how Asian Americans are the new Jews?The idea has actually been kicking around for a few years now but has resurfaced in the preliminary stages leading up to the U.S. Supreme Court's...

That off-again, on-again morning meeting in San Jose between President Obama and a roundtable of Asian American business leaders represents the stark undemocratic reality of today's politics.Not only is it closed to the media, but the participants' names are part...

"I disenchanted both sides," said New Jersey Superior Court Judge Glenn Berman, as he wound up the sentencing hearing of Dharun Ravi, the 20-year-old Rutgers student who was convicted of bias intimidation for spying on his roommate Tyler Clementi.Whether you...

It's cap and gown time, and along with it come thoughts that threaten to break apart Asian America. You'll notice it when you are at your child's commencement this graduation season (my Jillian, the rock star, gets her B.S. in...

The Asian American community has an umbrella problem. And maybe President Obama is the one to fix it.If Toni Morrison can call Bill Clinton "America's first black president" in 1998, then surely we can dub Barack Obama our nation's "first...

As the weekend began, I had the good pleasure of talking to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee in a social setting (the Asian Law Caucus 40th anniversary dinner). I'll say this for the Mayor. He's far more charming and charismatic...

I guess U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. thought racial profiling just wasn't sexy enough for the Supreme Court.Or maybe it was too obvious. And then I suppose when you get to the high court, you want to impress the justices...

Here's a trend I call "false hope" for xenophobes: What if all the foreign-born and their offspring actually pick up and go home? Well, it's not quite happening in such massive numbers that the Tea Party will choke on its good...

Modern racism has evolved with the eruption of D.C. Councilman Marion Barry. Can one still say overtly racist things about Asian Americans and get away with it?Sure you can. And Barry's exhibit A. As he celebrated yet another landslide primary victory with...

Next time a stupid disc jockey makes a joke about an Asian American's accent or when someone goes to the buck-tooth "ah-so" route to describe an Asian immigrant, please don't laugh and say, "Where's your sense of humor, bud?" Instead, remember...

My dear mother hated broccoli. She was healthy without it. She lived among the hipsters in San Francisco's SOMA district, only her perch was the senior housing at Clementina Towers. Mom never had much money. But boy, did she have health...

After the Dharun Ravi verdict, suddenly I'm nostalgic for the days when a noose was a noose, a hood was a hood, and a hate crime was a hate crime.Was there ever a doubt in that grand old formula? Add...

It's not exactly the southern headline the Romney campaign wanted to wake up to the morning after. But a win is a win in--American Samoa, where it's not true Romney got to count the big Samoans twice.At least now maybe...

Lady Gaga is all gaga about bullying, which she's trying to elevate in our consciousness as tantamount to human rights abuse.A bit far-fetched for some, but not for me.What is bullying but racism without color?To a bully, race doesn't matter....

The most hateful rhetoric of Tuesday night came from the mouth of a white male, probably late 20s-mid 30s, who was part of a CNN focus group in Ohio, a key state in next week's Super Tuesday voting.The man seemed...

Once again I watched the Oscars waiting for a Sacheen Littlefeather moment. You'll remember her (unless you think Christopher Plummer is the name of someone to call to fix that problem in the bathroom). Littlefeather is the Native American activist...

We were all having so much fun, too. But that's no excuse for racism.I was wondering when someone would use a "Chink in the Armor" reference.I'm sure many Asian Americans thought about it too. But only the most screwed up...

Maybe they should take down all the "NO MSG" signs in Chinese restaurants around New York.MSG officially stands for Madison Square Garden, and MSG is saying "YES!" in a big way to our new national Asian American hero, Jeremy Lin.Playing...

A prior engagement on the West Coast meant I couldn't get to the AALDEF dinner in New York City last week. So let me give my own award to AALDEF honoree Fareed Zakaria for an excellent interview Sunday with George...

A Super Bowl victory means New York is now home to a world-class football team. (It's primarily in Jersey, but who's to quibble?)Coach Tom Coughlin, the man everyone wanted fired mid-season, is now seen in a new light--as a victorious...

In politics, when the going gets rough, the tough get dirty and divisive. Even though voters say they don't like to see it, when a campaign is desperate to have a victory, going negative really works. Florida was so nasty, ...

After all the countless GOP debates, last night we really needed to see someone act presidential and remind us why this whole campaign process is important.And who else but a president can reassure a nervous country about its well-being, its...

I don't care about Romney's taxes. If H&R Block didn't do them for him, he made too much money, and he likely paid less tax proportionately than any of us.Indeed, to make $43 million over two years, paying $6.2 million...

Now that we are in primary season, it's pretty clear: The GOP doesn't have a real answer to President Obama.The party's once and future front-runner Mitt Romney is imploding. His hair is in place, but he's imploding.And the new momentum...

Jerry Yang, Chief Yahoo and quintessential Asian American internet entrepreneur, is no longer wildly shrieking the brand.Instead, the words from Yang's lips are whatever you say when something doesn't work out, or you don't find something.What's the opposite of "Eureka"...

The first GOP primary was a bit like musical chairs, except when the music stopped, there were still the same number of chairs and the same number of candidates.No one wants to leave, though surely the gig is up.Mitt Romney's...

An 8 point win in Iowa as we approach the Year of the Dragon would only be a good omen for an Asian American.Just not for Mitt Romney.Romney, the candidate who could be anchorman, hardly can be called a winner...

I've always thought it strange that the two bellwether states that really begin the political season are Iowa and New Hampshire.Bellwether for what? Certainly not diversity.In Iowa and New Hampshire, it may as well be America in the 1950s, impregnable...

With the death of Kim Jong-il comes a sliver of hope. Will the family franchise of famine and daredevil nuclear gamesmanship continue? Or, for the sake of its people, is there any chance of real change in North Korea?In other...

As of this week, I'm not buying my screws from Lowe's anymore, though there must be a surplus of loose screws back at the home office. The home improvement chain sure has a strange way of celebrating America's diversity. "Duck...

December 7th will live in infamy for a different reason in the history of the Occupy movement.In San Francisco, Mayor Ed Lee gave the OK for a brutal pre-dawn raid of the OccupySF encampment, with police moving in around 1...

Who would have thought the person to jumpstart an all-but-dead national immigration debate would be none other than the gringo's gringo, Newt Gingrich?Gingrich, the ethically challenged politico, proud philanderer, and insistent historian (never a--gasp--lobbyist), is truly someone to whom, say,...

It was the spritz heard round the world. Or rather, make that spritzes, unfortunately. There were way too many of them.But I think it couldn't have come at a better time.I had just been yearning for the halcyon days of...

Before we get on to juicier matters, it's still worth trumpeting Ed Lee's victory as the first elected Asian American mayor in San Francisco and what it means to our country, isn't it?I admit, it would be a much better...

If it weren't for Ranked Choice Voting, we'd have a runoff in San Francisco between the top two vote getters, interim Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor John Avalos.How conventional.Instead, Lee gets to drop the "interim" tag, becoming the "presumptive" mayor...

If you are one of the 17.3 million Asian Americans living in the U.S. with even a slight interest in any kind of politics, besides the Herman Cain sexual harassment allegations, it's hard to imagine you don't have at least...

For nearly 24 hours, Occupy Oakland had contributed another chapter to the ongoing national Occupy Wall Street movement with mostly peaceful demonstrations on Wednesday, powered by a general strike, the city's first since 1946. More than 7,000 people joined in...

San Francisco's mayoral election was supposed to be a showcase of Asian American political empowerment never before seen in the continental U.S.A bevy of Asian American politicians to choose from may be old hat in a place like Honolulu, where...

While watching this week's Western Republican Debate in Las Vegas via CNN, I kept looking for Asian American faces, if not content.After all, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the fastest growing minority group in Nevada, rising 116 percent since...

Sometimes I think the biggest barrier to democracy is the franchise itself, voting.I mean everything from the physical act of casting a ballot (whether it be using a black marker, an old fashioned voting machine, or the infamous pinpricking of...

Watching on TV this weekend, I saw a video clip of the 700 arrests made on the Brooklyn Bridge. In a quick five-second shot, I saw at least one Asian American face among the protestors. Was it yours?Prior to this...

Texas Governor Rick Perry's blessing and curse is he's George W. Bush's protege.If you liked the cowboy boots on W., you'll love them on Perry. He's got real dung on those Tony Llamas.On the other hand, if you regret eight...

Any time government-sanctioned discrimination ends in America is cause for celebration.That's the real reason for the big hurrah over the official death of the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy. But the military is trying to undersell it. "I will...

Where's the Flip Cam when you need it? Imagine this scene: 78-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sliding down an emergency chute as she evacuates a troubled jet at D.C.'s Dulles Airport. On her way down, do you think...

I had dinner there a number of times. I'd seen the view. I just can't imagine people leaping from the World Trade Center towers.For me, that's the lingering and most horrific image of 9/11. A distressed person in silhouette, taking...

There's a hard way and an easy way.And in the end Goodwin Liu took the easy way.Who could blame him after the nearly two years of being a political football in Washington?Today, Liu, the embattled yet eminently well-qualified Asian American...

This week began with rebels taking Tripoli. From the sound of it, President Obama loves a revolution:"Your courage and character have been unbreakable in the face of a tyrant," Obama said to the Libyan people on Monday. "An ocean divides...

David Chiu, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, is in New York Friday to seek funds for his San Francisco mayoral run.I'm actually surprised he's doing it.He's already raised more money than any other candidate to date by...

If you're depressed over the debt downgrade from Standard & Poor's, relax.America needn't act like an Asian American student who got her first B in math.You still got into Brown, right? See, it's not even that bad. And you're still...

After the debt ceiling deal was announced, I kept thinking about a phrase that is said about Asian Americans, a minority in every sense of the national political calculus, especially after our concerns aren't addressed.That phrase: "Where are they going...

Asian Americans as a group are known both for their political anonymity and scarcity. So anyone who can claim to be the first Chinese American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives is a big deal.Someone should have told...

Rupert Murdoch's in a fog. These days, at least from his testimony, the guy can't tell the difference between a phone hack and a hack writer. But we do know for some time now he's been suffering from a kind of...

To this day, affirmative action as public policy--giving qualified minorities a chance to compete for college admissions, public jobs, and contracts--is not just a sentimental throwback. It remains the noble, magnanimous, and right thing to do. But in a time...

As I set off my Chinese fireworks on the Fourth of July, thinking about freedom and independence and what it means to be American, I also had Jose Antonio Vargas on my mind.I hope he was celebrating the freedom of...

My 14-year-old daughter marched with the PETA float in San Francisco's Pride parade Sunday, wearing a "Vegan Pride T-shirt" and passing out stickers and pamphlets to the thousands of onlookers. Not all of them were gay, of course. But most...

President Obama seems intent on stretching the limits of our Orwellian disbelief. So here comes the $1 billion dollar question ($1 billion being the projected cost by September this year for whatever it is we're doing in Libya): Are we...

I've got my call into Ronald Madis Ebens. I've found him, heard his voice, and left my message on his answering machine. And when he calls me back, maybe he'll say something to make us all feel better.I'm not holding...

Scott Pelley begins his tenure this week as the anchor of the show that bears his name, "The CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley." But I'm wondering, what if his name were Scott Pellicito or Scott Pelley Woo? I do congratulate...

If only Shaquille O'Neal could have announced his retirement during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May. Then we could have really ended the month with a bang!O'Neal is in all likelihood the biggest perpetrator of an Asian American slur...

Whooping cranes are endangered, but there are still more of them than there are federal judges of Asian American descent, of which there are just fourteen. Asian Americans, 17 million strong and five percent of the U.S. population, aren't merely...

The month of May is more than half over, and if you haven't boisterously greeted the next available warm body (of whatever sex, race or ethnic origin) with a loud and celebratory "Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month," what's your...

As we pick up the pieces, here's a sense of life inside Casa Osama. If you're a guy, you'd have been doing his dirty work---tending the goats. If you're a woman, you'd be lucky to be one of his four allotted...

When you're told to stand by for breaking news from the White House on a Sunday night, you know you're not about to get a standard garden-variety press release.What could possibly interrupt a night reserved for watching America's masterpiece theatre--that...

Without doubt, the Tyler Clementi story is a tragic one. The Rutgers University student committed suicide last year, plunging to his death from the George Washington Bridge. It was just days after his roommate allegedly displayed live video on the...

In recent years, Southeast Asian families in Minnesota and California were bombarded by this come-on: Win two free tickets to Laos.Not Disneyland. Not DisneyWorld. Laos. The homeland. Let's go! The catch? Just refinance your home with a new variable rate, interest...

I'm shocked that the National Association of Black Journalists has decided to pull out of Unity, the coalition of media professionals that always reminded me of the true purpose of being a journalist of color.As always, dollars are at the...

Simon Tam is both the manager and the bass player of a rock group known as The Slants. Are you offended yet? Tam, 30, came up with the idea for an Asian American, 80s dance-rock band four years ago. With...

Is there anything more ridiculous than the notion of war as a humanitarian mission? I suppose it depends on if you're the bomber or the bombed upon. As I heard President Obama lay down his justification for military action...

I wish they hadn't taken down that YouTube video of the now ex-UCLA coed who created a Sheen-like commotion last week with her anti-Asian rant.It was so perfect as the look of fresh, modern unconscious racism. It was the girl...

As a senior host for NPR's "All Things Considered" from 1989-1991, I was one of the first Asian Americans to regularly anchor a national news program when I co-hosted the weekends with Lynn Neary. Some of my favorite memories involve...

While the media was all agog giving airtime to Charlie Sheen last week, you had to look pretty hard to find coverage of something far more important to society: the gross and unfair treatment of federal court nominee Goodwin Liu.Liu...

Full disclosure right up front: Years ago before the first tech crash, I worked with David Chiu at Grassroots.com. I was a mere VP of webcasting. One of the big benefactors said I would be the next Larry King.I guess...

If you've been following what's going on in state houses in Wisconsin and New Jersey, it's just the beginning of a major catastrophe that will soon spread to my home state, California. There used to be red states and blue states. Now...

Flying into New York last week on a jet enabled for TV, it was a treat to watch democracy in action throughout the world. On one channel, Egypt was in full democratic eruption seeking a new modern future. On another...

Asian Americans usually never miss the boat. But maybe we have when it comes to Rush Limbaugh. (That would be a big boat, too.)If you haven't heard Limbaugh try to sound like your Asian ancestors, that's good. You've been spared...

As an Asian American and the longtime writer of a column called "Amok," I felt a strong spiritual obligation to be at the inaugural celebration of Fred T. Korematsu Day held last Sunday, Jan. 30, in Berkeley.Now here's a guy...

If you feared that this State of the Union address would be a sharp right turn from hope and change, relax.It was the best speech our first bi-racial president searching for middle ground could make.President Obama was purposefully in the...

The final list isn't official yet. But if San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Oakland Mayor Jean Quan are among the guests at tonight's state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao, then surely someone in the Obama administration can make...

It's official. And in Asian American history, it's a big deal.San Francisco's new mayor is named Lee---Ed Lee, the first Asian American of Chinese descent to hold that position.Anyone who jokes that he's mayor because they lowered the height requirement,...

In California, with 4.4 million Asian Americans--the most Asian state in the nation--Jerry Brown is once again the chief executive. Are you ready for the pain?Previously a two-term governor at age 36, Brown is back for a third term at...

I don't know about you, but I'll be watching Sunday night football on Tuesday and feeling happy that Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania will be out of office on Jan. 18. It couldn't come soon enough.He may not like it...

Too many historic votes in the Senate this past weekend. Some good. Some bad. So maybe it's appropriate that my week began by attending a funeral of a young Asian American. My nephew Brian Francisco was just 31, an American...

When Barack Obama gets in trouble, he usually rallies with a rousing and passionate speech. But his compromising ways have turned him into just half the man we thought he was.So as the hot talk in Washington turns to tax...

This week when Congress is expected to finally vote on the so-called Dream Act, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) will vote to kill it.And what of his one-time role as a lead sponsor of the original bill many years ago? It...

For all journalists, this I know to be true: We all love a good leak.It's the sexy part of the news game, to reveal something that heretofore was so off-limits and so verboten. That makes it one lucky day when...

In the last few weeks, airport security has gone X-rated in the hunt for terrorists. A new era has arrived when airline passengers are being quoted in the New York Times saying, "I didn't really expect her to touch my...

Nineteen years ago, the musical Miss Saigon first came to Broadway with a white actor augmented by eye prosthesis and bronzing cream to make him look more Asian.Sound a bit too Charlie Chan-like for the modern day? It seemed that...

George W. Bush smiled and chatted up Matt Lauer on the Today Show Wednesday. "I'm enjoying selling the book," Bush said. "My debating days are over."Yes, with his memoirs out now, Bush is all about retail. And I certainly understand...

So Democrats lost the House, but the Republicans couldn't win the Senate.It means on the national level, we are in for two years of "incremental nothing," when things only seem to be happening but aren't. We've seen gridlock before. And...

Even before the results are in, the Tea Party has impacted this year's mid-terms. But have you seen any Asian Americans in its ranks? I haven't noticed any. Which leads me to wonder, how can you call yourself a TP...

While we wait to see if New Jersey prosecutors will pursue hate crime enhancements against Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei in connection with the outing of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, is there anyone out there in the community who may...